[LCN] Balance & Development Update July 18

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Scoughman, Jul 19, 2017.

  1. Scoughman

    Scoughman Well-Known Member

    A few weeks ago in the Spring/Summer Newsletter, we announced plans to make some changes to the game based on our research, as well as feedback from you via our new in-game survey. It’s been two weeks since then, and that means we owe you an update!

    Below you’ll find a list of our planned changes with some more detail about how we plan to roll these out. We’ve also included some notes on why we think this is a good solution, ways we’ve tried to address your feedback, and most importantly, when we expect to release them. These aren’t all set in stone by any means, so please let rip if you have questions or suggestions!

    Making it hurt less to be Hitlisted - estimated release date: August 2017

    We’ve heard of lot of concerns about griefing lately, and because hitlisting is the most powerful way for players of very different levels to interact, much of that feedback centers around the list. People don’t like being listed over and over to the point where they can’t do anything but heal and die repeatedly, and according to reports, many decide to stop playing and simply stay dead.

    We spent some time looking into whether we should set a lower limit before hitlisting triggers Protection, or increase hitlist price faster the more times you list the same person. However, accounts often have enough income that we would have to make a huge increase to hitlist cost to make a difference. It’s also hard to tell “how much is too much”, because we usually can’t tell if a player stopped playing specifically because of being listed or not.

    Since announcing this idea, we also had a number of players write in to tell us that hitlisting is one of their favourite parts of the game, and if we limited it further that’d ruin some of their fun. This is a core concern for us too; we want to see MORE hitlisting in the game, not less. Our theory is if we can make it less painful to be listed, we’ll see people heal and keep playing instead of just staying dead, meaning more targets and more people playing all around.

    Our plan is to prevent someone from being listed for a brief period after the last time they were put on the list. This should give them enough time to do some jobs, collect GP or fight bosses without being killed again, so you can get positive XP even while you’re on the list. This limits the ability to chain the same person back to back, but many players have a whole list of potential victims; once you finish listing them, your original target should be ready again.

    Unless we hear other suggestions, we’ll start with 60 seconds. It will be adjustable so we can shorten it if it takes too long to get back to the same target, or make it longer if too many people stay dead. Plus, we can always revert this change if we see less targets and less activity overall.​

    Making Ambushes stronger - estimated release date: Late July / Early August 2017

    We’ve heard of lot of concerns about griefing lately, and because the hitlist is the most powerful way for players of very different levels to interact, much of that feedback centers around the list. People don’t like being listed over and over to the point where they can’t do anything but heal and die repeatedly, and according to reports, many decide to stop playing and simply stay dead.

    Since announcing this idea, we had a number of players write in to tell us that hitlisting is one of their favourite parts of the game, and if we limited it further that’d ruin some of their fun. This is a core concern for us too; we want to see MORE hitlisting in the game, not less. If we can make it less painful to be listed, we should see more people heal and keep playing instead of just staying dead, meaning more targets and more people playing all around.

    Our plan is to prevent someone from being listed for a brief period after the last time they were put on the list. This should give them enough time to do some jobs, collect GP or fight bosses without being killed again, so you can get positive XP even while you’re on the list. This limits the ability to chain the same person back to back, but many players have a whole list of potential victims; once you finish listing them, your original target should be ready again.​

    More Promotions and Sales for More Players - estimated release date: Already out!

    You may have noticed a new countdown timer for FP sales recently. We heard from a lot of players that they wanted more opportunities to get cheap FP, so everyone now has the chance to get some for 50% off every two to four weeks.

    We have some plans for different sale packages we want to offer down the road, but our main focus is on game balance and player concerns right now.​

    Giving higher levels more to do - estimated release date: see below

    There’s quite a few things we’re considering to help with this issue. For one thing, we’re happy to report that the recent new Raid Boss drove increased play at higher levels. It’s all very theoretical at this point, but we’re planning to double down on that by changing the format of future raid events to create more fun and flavour; imagine an extra tough boss with improved drops, or weaker bosses that offer more drop chances.

    These changes should be easier to implement, but we’ll need to take some time to balance the rewards and ensure they’re fun to play. The new PvP event we mentioned is a pretty big and exciting feature, so we don’t expect that to come out until sometime this Fall. We’ll share details on both of these as soon as we know more about what they might look like.

    New achievements on the other hand are a go for sure, and something we’ve heard from a lot of players about. The tough part with these is always determining how to set the difficulty curve, but we know some players have gone a ways ahead of where the next “step” would be if the curve stayed the same. Our first goal is fill in these gaps, which we expect to be done in August. After that, we’ll move on to setting some exciting high-level achievements with special rewards that you can expect to see sometime in September.​

    Syndicate War Rewards by Division - estimated release date: September 2017

    We are super excited about this change, because it has the potential to make Syndicate Wars much more competitive and exciting across all level ranges. Our plan right now is to replace one of the Syndicate War events in September with a new Tiered Reward event, in which the top 20% or so of Syndicates in each Division get a prize instead of just the top 20% overall. Spreading out the winners should allow us to offer better prizes, so if you fight hard and climb up the leaderboard, there’ll be a reward that makes your FP spent on refills worth it.​

    ---

    Thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions about these changes! It’s always a pleasure to hear from people who want to help make the game more fun, and we’re glad to be able to share our plans with you.

    Keep your eyes peeled for more updates over next few months, and as always you can reach us Monday to Friday at http://support.kanoapps.com/.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2017
    M3THMouth likes this.
  2. Dcasso

    Dcasso Well-Known Member

    Regarding the syndicate wars awards changes, I have a question.

    Based on the above, only top 20% of a tier will gain something, since there on kong the last wars which had the highest number of participants in a long time (33) would meaning that on average there is 6,5 syncs pr tier. This results in that only one sync pr tier would get a rewards, correct?
    If the above is correct, there is no point at all to participate in the event unless you are guranteed to be the best in your tier? or am I missing out on something?
     
  3. Scoughman

    Scoughman Well-Known Member

    Hey Dcasso, thanks for the reply! You're right, if there are only 5/6 syndicates in a tier, only one would get rewards. However, in normal Syndicate Wars, it's very rare for any Syndicate outside A or B Division to win a prize (beyond the XP you get for participating.) By splitting up the rewards by tier, the playing field should be more level, so Syndicates from every division have more of a chance to win.

    I think it's a good point that the divisions can be really small on platforms like Kongregate, so maybe we can look into reducing the number of divisions there. If you have any ideas for how to address this, I'd love to hear them.
     
  4. Jared

    Jared Well-Known Member

    I disagree with most of these for a number of reasons. But I may be wrong, so I'll be willing to see how the changes impact the game. I really don't see how they can make anything worse.
    As to Dcasso's point, maybe on the less active platforms, have the top 3 in each tier eligible for prizes. This is the only one I like, but I have a feeling there's going to be an influx of "new" players now to fill up syndicates, since individual skills don't matter for war rankings.
     
    Sandy Barrows likes this.
  5. Dcasso

    Dcasso Well-Known Member

    Well your concept will ruin SW on smaller platforms, can't say anything about on FB, since I don't play there. But the above idea basically says, don't play sw unless you know you will win. Giving out a price to a d or e sync with 1 or 2 players, instead of giving out rewards to sync with full active playerlist, makes NO sense what so ever, and I would love to hear the argument for why you would remove rewards from top active syncs to donate it to single alt syncs.
     
  6. Jared

    Jared Well-Known Member

    A 1 or 2 player syndicate won't have a chance to win in the new format, regardless of tier. I would imagine this is geared towards newer players that can't compete with the top level A tier players that have banded together and win the wars every time. At least everyone who has a decent number of players in their syndicates would have a chance to get something.
     
  7. Dcasso

    Dcasso Well-Known Member

    I fully agree it is to screw over the old player base again. Sad part, we must be rather dumb to choose to continue even though they ignore us complete. On kong (and probably the old kp servers) this will result in. Top 1 A will be the one with most alts in other syncs to scout for, top 1 B will be real sync, top 1 c, d e alt controlled syncs.
    It annoys me that Kano is unable to help out new while also doing something for the existing base, it kind of feels like a phone company, luring in new suckers while screwing over the old. But this one change might just be a tipping point for the sw competing syncs, because no point in throwing in 100s for fp for no return, and if you know you can't be number 1, well nio reason to spend, snd if you are in the lead, no reason to add more.
    It also have the problem of sync tiers begin defined at sw start, which makes it impossible to go for being besdt in t3, since you might end up being weakest B sync.
    Keep top 5 rewards (to not ruing thefp spending base) and a tier rewards for b,c,d and e.
     
  8. Seppo

    Seppo Active Member

    its not good idea to put limit how often u can list someone, guessing many will stop listing people and then people stop hunting.. its my opinion hurting less to get listed is good choice.. and coz we can get killed anyway why u dont bring back if it was back before u earn exp when u won when someone hits u in hitlist and u won ... if there are healing option while u get listed... kinda pointless to heal at firstplace.... why thre are then healign option coz healign while listed doesnt give u anything?!??!
     
    Kirsten likes this.
  9. Sandy Barrows

    Sandy Barrows Active Member

    Not liking many of these changes - I dont like hitlist aspect - an improvement would be to have more ambushes - 10 is pitiful they get run through in no time at all - Synd wars is hard enough now to get people to join - this will further discourage players
    Raid changes - I will wait and see - but since the introduction of Raids the workshop is redundant - nothing of value to craft any longer :/
    Can you address workshop and new bosses for the higher levels
     
  10. Jared

    Jared Well-Known Member

    That's not a bad idea. Top 5 rewards go to A tier syndicates, and then 1 each for the lower tiers. I could live with that.
     
  11. Jared

    Jared Well-Known Member

    What do you mean? I'm sure putting even more listing restrictions in place will definitely encourage more hits. Where is your sense of logic?
     
  12. Sir Opinion Alot

    Sir Opinion Alot Well-Known Member

    haha game is far from being balanced in any shape or form, just went to the battle arena in lcn which aint played in a few months I laugh now you all have made my mind up the cash cows have ruined your game and i am about to give up, i broke my 1800 days straight of playing, i have stopped sending bosses, i was trying ba out but when the field has spent on limited items like they have even a low spender has no chance in hell thanks for 7 yrs of gaming maybe 4 was fun the last few yrs well went to the shitter award... dueces
     
  13. Jared

    Jared Well-Known Member

    I just got pk'd after a bunch of players ganged up on me. Mama, I have an ouchie. Oh well, I guess I have to quit now.
     
    Sandy Barrows and Kirsten like this.
  14. Dcasso

    Dcasso Well-Known Member

    From another thread:

    Exactly proving the point I am trying to make.
     
  15. Dcasso

    Dcasso Well-Known Member

    Tried to address them last week in the above posts, but doesn't seem like you noticed it
     
  16. Sir Opinion Alot

    Sir Opinion Alot Well-Known Member

    lol 2 weeks later aint see nothing you know a few incredible items in crafting and a few new jobs added to cities with awesome items a few easy things to start would make a big difference then just talking and waiting another 6 months for issues that should have been fixed a year ago...
     
  17. Sandy Barrows

    Sandy Barrows Active Member

    Excited not - I have read this several times now to ensure I looked for the good bits - still havent found any - i feel like I'm playing a different game
    My syndicate is an A team and we are all totally dinterested in it now - I doubt we will continue to play this aspect of the game - the changes arent making me at all excited - address the other points that valued players have raised for the last several MONTHS /YEARS
    Nothing really exciting coming so whats new Scoughman ?
     
    Sir Opinion Alot likes this.
  18. eric smith

    eric smith Member

    in a way if it was the way the old game used to be, now its not used for much outside of transferring money back and for the one strongest syndicate who controls the game now and you cant play very much except when they are sleeping.
     
  19. Randy Jenkins

    Randy Jenkins Active Member

    the changes to the syndicate wars where just a handful of syndicates in each division gets rewards is not good we were 71st overall which we would have at least gpt xp from it. my syndicate is less likely to take part in the next syndicate wars if the change is permanent.
     
  20. Scoughman

    Scoughman Well-Known Member

    Hey guys, we have heard a fair bit of feedback about this lately, so stay tuned; we should have some news coming about the Faction War prizing either today or in tomorrow's TGIF.
     

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